A Conflicting Mind
by jak3combat
Summary: Personalities. Everybody has them, and they usually can change them with enough effort. We cannot, seeing as we're pretty much two people in one body. That didn't stop us from being able to equally share the body we inhabited, though. This equality was kept hidden, and we all ended up in the USMC when we turned twenty. We also ended up somewhere we never thought we would two years.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Not a Normal Day

**Yeah, I know MPD doesn't work like this. Shut up. It's the future, I ain't gotta explain shit. And this is also different from my normal writing style.**

When the two of us woke up, we decided that Ruby was taking over for the day. As a result, our body's irises turned golden. None of us knew why it happened, it just did.

**[More or Less Ruby's POV]**

_'Alright Ruby, today's just a normal smash and grab mission.'_ Markus said in his trademark quiet voice, causing me to nod sagely.

_'I know Markus. I'm going to need you to be as quiet as possible for most of the day so I can concentrate on not getting our body destroyed.'_ I replied to him, before stretching and walking out of our room, stepping into the wonderful wide world of England on a shitty day.

"God almighty, why do I have to do this?" I muttered under my breath as I hurried to the mess hall to get breakfast. Next to me was the most loyal squadmate that I could hope to have.

"Come on, Maul." I said as I started jogging. "I wanna get to breakfast before all the good food's gone." The German Shephard next to me let out a bark and kept pace with me. A Military Working Dog, Maul has been with me for two years now, and the only wounds he's gotten were a few grazing shots.

"We're rolling out at 0900, Sergeant." An officer clad in urban fatigues said as he came up next to me.

"What're we looking for, sir?" I asked as I glanced at him.

"An HVT." Lieutenant Moore answered. "Bastard's got a few nuclear warheads moving out of London by sundown and the brass want them secured no matter what. We got MI6 remenants helping us."

"What should we be expecting?" I asked as I opened the door to the building for him and Maul.

"Heavy Taliban presence, and possible defectors." He sighed. "More and more of our men keep defecting every day, and we all know that the traitors are going to the Taliban with information."

"Goddammit..." I sighed. "What're the most common defectors?"

"Infantry, thankfully." Moore answered, before frowning. "And a few mortar squads." I grimanced, but nodded as we got in line.

"We're gonna be dodging the hell out of mortar fire, aren't we?" I asked.

"Sadly, yes." Moore frowned. "They took their damn equipment and ordinance with them."

"Bastards." I scowled. I noticed a few others stop whatever they were doing, before one shouted.

"Incoming!" She shouted, and all of us dropped to the floor, hands over the back of our necks.

_'Artillery! That's not mere mortar fire!'_ Markus exclaimed. I would've replied to him, but a nice chunk of the ceiling chose that moment to fall down.

"Fuck!" I yelled, trying to unpin my legs. "Lieutenant, help me!"

"Hold on!" He shouted back, keeping low while trying to push the rubble off of me. Another whistling sound appeared, and I looked back in time to see a shell land not even a foot away...

* * *

It was a normal day in the Crystal Empire. By that, it means that the food crisis had finally been resolved, Sombra had been defeated, and Princess Mi Amore Cadenza (she likes to be called Cadence) was established as the ruler over the Empire alongside her husband, Shining Armor.

The crystal ponies weren't able to find anything to bitch about at the moment, so Cadence was idly chatting with the two guards sitting at the base of her throne. Shining Armor was off drilling new recruits, and it looked like nothing would go wrong for the day.

It's why nopony was really prepared for the explosion that happened halfway down the throne room. Dust and debris exploded outwards, and the only reason Cadence or her guards weren't hit by anything flying was because of her quick reflexes and a shield.

"Is everypony alright?!" Cadence questioned as the dust started settling down, coughing a bit as the particles bypassed her barrier. The shield was only meant for high speed objects, not something moving through the air like a tortous.

"We -cough- we're fine, your majesty." The left guard coughed out, holding his hoof over his mouth.

"What was that?" The right one muttered, straining to see through the thick dust. A faint coughing was heard, putting the three of them on guard.

_"H-Help..."_ A rough, gravelly voice said, but what it meant was lost upon the three ponies. Out of the dust crawled a grieviously injured creature. It was missing an arm, half a leg, and half of it's face was severely cut open and bleeding profusely. Cadence gasped and looked at the guards.

"One of you go get Shining Armor, the other alert the medical staff." The two didn't bother saluting, knowing a creature's life was teetering on the edge of death.

_"W...Why can't I feel my arm?"_ The creature mumbled, rolling onto it's back and staring up at the ceiling.

"Please..." Cadence decended from the stairs and picked it up in her magic. "Please hang on." It's eyes rolled up into it's head, but other than that it gave no response.

* * *

_'We... We shouldn't be alive.'_ Markus muttered, trying to move the body. Ruby was in a coma for the moment, so it was up to him to keep it from being deemed 'dead' and buried or cremated.

That would be a horrible way to die. To be alive, knowing in a moment that you'd be turned to ashes.

_"Stem the blood flow!"_ Something said, alerting him that there was something working on the body.

**[Markus]**

Without moving my body, I strained to understand what the heck was going on. I couldn't understand the voices I was hearing, but they didn't sound like they were from Europe. That confused the hell out of me, considering that the...

_Oh Christ, where the heck are we?_

_"It's waking up!"_ A feminine voice called out. The only other things I could hear were medical instruments clinking together and hooves clicking on tile.

"Ugh..." I couldn't help but groan. As I listened to them chatter, I did my best to figure out what language they were talking in.

From the sounds, it's like an American speaking in Latin/German or some other odd dialect. I can't make heads or tails of the language, and from that, I deduced that they probably couldn't understand English or French. Wouldn't hurt to attempt to try, though.

"Hello?" I gurgled out, feeling blood pool in my mouth. Okay, I had a badly cut up mouth and a concussion, so I wasn't exactly stable at the moment. I did my best to roll over and spit out the blood that was doing its best to drown me, sending a small stream next to pink... hooves. A pair of pink hooves clad in golden horse shoes with a bit of a guard were shortly covered in my blood, while I attempted to cough up the life liquid from my lungs.

_"Can't you help it, doctor?"_ The owner of the hooves questioned in a slightly soothing voice, though I couldn't understand what she(?) said.

_"We have no idea how to begin with this creature, Ma'am."_ Another feminine voice answered back. While coughing, I searched around for medical equipment.

Though Ruby and I ultimately joined the USMC, I was hoping to be in the Navy so we could become a corpsman and save lives. For eighteen years I had studied medicine while Ruby rested in the back of our mind, so I knew a lot about the human body. Something these horses probably didn't.

_This is gonna be grueling._ I thought to myself, before attempting to push myself off the surgical table with my left arm. All I felt was a stub slapping metal. _...I'm an amputee..._ I couldn't help but think. _Stop blood flow now, worry about being discharged later._ I forced myself off of the table to discover that I was missing my left leg as well, causing me to grimace and hop over to a mirror. The voices protested and I ignored them in favor of checking the condition of what body Ruby and I had left.

We... had better days. Our left leg was blown off at the knee almost completely cleanly, our arm was two thirds gone, and our face wasn't coming out of that without scarring. Shaking my head, I grabbed gauze and bunched up a lot of it, pressing it against my leg wound. With a few head motions, I got one of the horses to wrap another roll around it tightly, securing it for the time being. We repeated the same thing with my arm, and I grabbed a pair of tweezers to pick the glass, stone, and metal fragments from my face.

* * *

"It certainly knows what it's doing, Princess." Doctor Tenderhoof commented as he watched the bipedal amputee clean its face. "Almost like it's had medical training."

"A shame we can't understand him, though." Cadence mumbled, stepping closer to see if she could help him. "To think what knowledge he could share..."

"Er, how can you tell i-he's male?" Tenderhoof asked in confusion, getting closer despite subtle instincts telling him to flee. He could definitely tell that the creature was a predator.

"The way he stands, acts, and the voice is too deep to be feminine." She answered, stumbling back in shock as the creature ignited the gauze on its arm with some sort of device. Before the orderly next to him could react, he turned away and kept the burning cloth there with a carefully shaking hand.

The smell of burning flesh made everypony in the room crinkle their muzzles in disgust, but they were forced to watch as the biped burned its own flesh for some reason. After about half a minute, he let the remains fall to the ground, revealing a cauterized wound.

"I see what he's doing now..." Tenderhoof coughed from the smell. "He must not have access to magic, so he's forced to use unconventional means to achieve the same thing."

"Twilight's gonna have a field day with him..." Cadence mumbled, and turned as somepony burst into the room.

"Cade- Eugh, what's that smell?!" Shining Armor began, but stopped as he noticed the lingering odor.

_"Hold on, dang it. I got my leg to cauterize... Ah what's the point? You can't understand a word I'm saying anyway."_ The gruff voice of the biped made the three by the surgery table turn, watching as the barbaric process was repeated.

"Why is that creature setting itself on fire?!" Shining exclaimed, worried for the safety of everyone in the room.

"Relax sir, he's simply cauterizing the grievous wounds that he obtained from the forceful removal of several parts of his appendages." The orderly, Nurse Gauze (ironic name, given the circumstances), spoke up, actually helping him.

"Who is that?" Shining questioned.

"He came out of that explosion that happened earlier." Cadence said. Shining gasped and checked her over for injuries, despite mild protesting.

"I'm fine, Shiny!" She said, holding him at foreleg length. "Really! I was able to throw up a shield in time to keep from getting injured, and my personal guards were only shaken up. The pony you really need to worry about isn't even a pony."

"Right." He was blushing a little as he stepped back. "What do we know about him?"

"Definitely a predator, by the vibes I'm getting." Tenderhoof began. "Possibly a doctor, or more likely combat medic from the clothing, vest, and helmet, the last two are over there if you want to take a look." The prince nodded and walked over to the table, unaware that the biped was staring at him in curiosity.

* * *

This... White unicorn had burst in while I was searing my flesh. It was painful, but I had adrenaline flowing through my body at the moment and everything was dulled down to a throb.

That or I had nerve damage where I lost my limbs. Either one.

_Has he never seen cerasteel before?_ I asked myself. I knew that the new material had been in defense production for only a few years after having been accidentally created, and before that our helmets and vests were made of Kelviar, a type of cloth that was tough to put a bullet through. Now, though, almost every nation's military regularly used it, considering that it was strong enough to stop the AP rounds in use before it was first created. So it came off as a little bit of a surprise that he didn't recognize the ugly green metal.

It's one of the reasons why my M18 handgun and M5 carbine always had AP3 bullets in their magazines. Speaking of my pistol...

I patted around my hip and let out a sigh of relief. The somewhat bulky form of the M18 was still in its hip holster. I knew our carbine was a lost cause, since we always leave it on our bunk when on base.

Glancing around, I grabbed an IV stand and used it to assist myself in going over to the table where my equipment was, to take inventory of what supplies I had. The unicorn cautiously stepped back as I stopped and used my left nub to balance myself while I clumsily put on the vest after letting the remains of the back cerasteel plate trickle out. They did great against bullets, but artillery shells will grind them into dust easily.

After the vest went on, I went about checking the various pouches for stuff.

All in all, I had two flashbangs, one useless M5 mag, three M18 mags, and two fun sized bags of trail mix.

"Right..." I would've clapped my hands, but I kinda couldn't at the moment. Instead, I settled on leaning on my hand to keep my balance. "Let's get down to business, shall we?"


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: Just for a tip, the only time Markus actually swears (includes 'hell') is when he's pissed beyond belief. Out of the two, Ruby is the more violent/sarcastic one.**

_Well, they can't speak English, so..._ I looked around for something, wobbling a bit. _Step one: get a cane. Step two: figure out the rest later._ After a brief moment of thinking, I used my good arm to mimic using a walking cane. Thankfully, they understood.

Though when the pony who left came back, it was wheeling a wheelchair.

_...Close enough._ I shrugged a bit and let the pony help me into it.

"So, where to now?" I questioned, even though it was probably moot. They probably got the tone of my voice, though, as the pink one said something to the white unicorn and they both led me out of the room, the less shy of the medical ponies pushing my wheelchair.

"Are you sure this is a good idea, Cadence?" Shining Armor asked the alicorn, glancing at Gauze who was pushing the creature.

"If you were in his hooves, wouldn't you want the same to happen to you?" Cadence asked in reply. Armor could only meekly nod, still unsettled by the being behind him.

_"Can't believe I'm saying this to a bunch of horses, but do you have anything to eat?"_ It spoke up, causing them to look in confusion. When he noticed that they didn't understand him, he rolled his eyes and patted his chest before pointing at his open mouth.

"I think he's hungry, your highness." Gauze spoke up from the side of him.

"Do we have any meat in the kitchen stocks, Shiny?" Cadence askd, much to the shock of the unicorn.

"You seriously just asked that?" He blinked. "We don't even know if he's actually a carnivore!"

"I can see his teeth from here, Shining." She deadpanned. "Also, I've never heard of a herbivore that also happened to be a predator." She added with a small giggle.

"I think there's some chicken in the freezer, for when the griffins visit." Gauze spoke up.

"Thank you, Gauze." Cadence smiled. "Come on, he probably hasn't eaten in a while." WIth that, the three of them walked down a few corridors.

"Big kitchen." I commented as the group wheeled me in. The pink one said something, and a chef walked into a freezer while the rest stood at a sloppy attention. I couldn't find it in my heart to be saddened by that; they weren't in the military. "Don't see a fridge, but you guys have a walk-in freezer. Odd, but who am I to judge your technological level?"

_'Ruby, please answer me!'_ I shot to my comatose other, hoping that she would answer. I could feel my grip on our body slipping slowly, and I worried about what they would do if the body were to go into a non-responsive state. I find it odd that they would be this trusting of me, and I didn't want to have either one of us 'wake up' to a vivisection.

Nothing.

_Great._ I thought, hiding a frown, before noticing a cookbook opened up on a crystalline table. _Let's see if their language is anything similar to Latin._ I nudged the nurse who was standing next to me to get her attention. I could tell it was a her from the voice, or so I hoped. When she looked at me, I pointed at the book and then to myself. After half a second, she nodded and trotted over, grabbed the book with her mouth, and put it in my lap.

"I... This is French!" I blinked in surprise. "An old dialect of it, but it's legitimate French!" I grinned. Ruby and I could speak three languages altogether, I learned French while she learned Italian.

_"Do you eat your meat cooked?"_ The pink horse came over, a frozen fowl breast in some kind of telekinetic grip.

"Can you understand me?" I questioned her in French. She almost dropped the bird in surprise.

"You can speak Gryphic?" She questioned.

"To me, the language is an archaic version of the French language." I answered. "They seem to be nearly identical, so call it what you wish."

"This makes things so much easier." She sighed, a grin stretching across her face. "Before I go any farther, are you a carnivore?" I had to remember what some of the diet-related words were.

"Omnivore." I struggled a tad. It was a little hard to remember the lessons. "I assume that you are herbivores?"

"That is correct, though the language you speak is also used by omnivores called griffins." She answered, causing me to blink.

"Griffins are mere myths where I hail from." I leaned back, and looked at the breast. "What type of bird is that from?"

"Turkey." She answered. "Are you able to eat it raw?"

"Yes, but I have a high chance of getting seriously ill. It has to be fully cooked or else I have a chance of getting sick." I rubbed my face, looking at the slight amount of blood on my fingers. I also noticed that I was missing my pinkie, something that irked me for some reason. She nodded and said something in that weird mix of Latin and German, before turning back to me.

"What's your name?" She asked.

"Master Sergeant Vicktor Armswell of the United States Marine Corps." I answered, holding out my remaining hand. "And you are?"

"I am Princess Mi Amore Cadenza of the Crystal Empire." She shook my hand. "But please, call me Cadence."

"It's a pleasure to actually meet you." I smiled, before looking around. "Who's the white unicorn?" I can't believe I actually asked that.

"My husband, Shining Armor." She answered. I furrowed what was left of my brow.

Wouldn't that make her a Queen? Bah, I'll ignore it for now. That turkey smells heavenly! Though that wasn't hard, seeing as the food that was on base tasted like cardboard and smelled like styrofoam. I was wheeled over to a table, where a plate, fork, knife, and napkin were put around or under the food I had most of my attention on.

"Do you need any help?" Cadence questioned as I used my good leg to scoot a little closer.

"I'm good." I answered, picking up the fork and taking a test poke. From the way it succumbed to the metal of the fork, I wouldn't need the knife.

"Well?" Dr. Tenderhoof asked at the same time as Shining Armor. Cadence sighed for a moment. Speaking in Old Gryphic, as it was a mostly dead language, made her thank her Aunt Celestia for teaching it to her.

"He seems to ignore the fact that he's amputated." She began, glancing behind her. "His name is Viktor Armswell, and he's apparently a Master Sergeant of the country 'United States Marine Corps'."

"What language were the two of you speaking?" Tenderhoof asked as he scribbled stuff down on a notepad.

"Old Gryphic." She answered, causing Shining's eyebrow to raise.

"I didn't know you could speak it, dear." He said, mild surprise lacing his voice. Cadence laughed a bit.

"Aunt Celestia thought it was a good idea." She answered. "Now it appears that I found a use for it, even if it was one she didn't expect."

"So he speaks a nearly dead language?" Tenderhoof rubbed his chin. "How come we haven't seen his kind before?"

"He says that the language, to his people, is something called 'archaic French'. Sounds similar to Prench, so maybe they live in the forests around there?"

"Seems likely, given that they haven't really been explored." Armor mused, before blinking. "Though, one has to wonder where they made that armor of his, since nopony has come even close to it yet."

"When we took it off of him, we didn't have any resistance besides the clasps and buckles." Tenderhoof offered. "I don't think it's magical in nature, sir."

"Industrial race, then." Oh, Shining Armor had no idea how true that statement was.

"Their nation would have to be small, to have avoided detection all these years." Cadence said, before leaving the conversation and walking back to Viktor.

"I forgot to ask you, but what are you?" Cadence questioned. Viktor swallowed the food in his mouth before answering.

_"I'm a human."_ He answered. _"Specifically an American."_

_"If I were to show you a map of this world, would you be able to point out where your country is?"_ Cadence questioned.

_"Unless this planet is Earth, I doubt it."_ He sighed a bit. "_And from the looks of things so far, we're not on my planet."_

_"So... You're an alien?"_ Cadence was dumbstruck.

_"No idea what that word was, but I'm not from this planet."_ He chuckled a bit, putting the fork down. "_This isn't my language, so I'm sorry if I stumble a bit."_

_"What is your real language, then?"_ Cadence asked, a little confused.

_"A different one, called 'English'. I am both fluent in that, another language called 'Italian', and this one."_ He answered, taking one final bite. _"Now, if I'm not being rude, may I have quarters so I can rest?"_

Cadence nodded. _"I'll get Gauze to take you to a guest room."_ With that, she turned to the nurse. "Would you be so kind as to take our guest to one of the spare guest rooms?" She asked politely.

"Right away, ma'am." She gave a little bow, before getting behind Viktor's wheelchair and pushing him out of the kitchen.

"This is gonna be an interesting week..." Cadence sighed. "At least we don't have to worry about his dietary needs."

"I hear you." Tenderhoof said in what the 'hip' fillies and colts say these days.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Recuperation

**Reviews:**

**jojo90nation: With how popular my stories are somehow getting, I wouldn't dare stop writing! The only problem is that I'm going Army next year, so production's gonna slow to a crawl.**

**Author's Note: A little bit of information about this fic; this will NOT feature Dawn (as shocking as it is), and the continent of Equestria will be more like what it looks like in the show (thankfully S4's finale gave us an official idea of it, though no real distance, so I still have some credit later ((you'll see what I mean)) in this chapter).**

"This is a nice bedroom." I commented as I was wheeled into a room that, quite frankly, looked like it came from a five-star hotel. Once she shut the door, the nurse showed me where everything important was. Namely the bathroom and a closet for clothing. Speaking of which...

"I know you can't understand me at the moment, but I'm gonna need more clothing than what I have on hand." I told her, smiling a bit as she cocked her head in confusion. "But not right now, I can wear what I have for a while longer." Though I could already begin to smell the sweat and blood becoming one with the uniform.

_"I'll take what you said as a compliment."_ She muttered something, before smiling. _"Anything else?"_ From her tone of voice, I bet she was asking if I needed anything.

"Nothing else, just some rest." I shook my head, before wheeling myself over to the bed and slipping onto it. She got the message well enough, and left with a final smile and wave. "Lord, what happened?" I rubbed my face, before unlacing my boot and kicking it off. I then took my blouse off and lay back, looking up at the crystalline ceiling.

_'Ruby?'_ I tried a third time.

_Well, it looks like I'm on my own at the moment..._ I sighed and shut my eyes, slipping into sleep fairly quickly.

* * *

"He's asleep, your majesty." Gauze reported, bowing a little in front of the pink alicorn.

"Thank you Gauze." Cadence smiled a bit, before frowning. "I don't like this idea, but I have to agree with it." She turned her head to look at Shining Armor, who was sitting across the table they decided to occupy.

"I don't like it either, considering that he's been through a lot and he's trusting us." He replied, before sighing. "But Princess Luna can tell if he's dangerous to us or not, and if we ask him we would sound suspicious or planning something." With that, a scroll that they wrote while waiting for Gauze to return disappeared with a pop.

"I just hope he can forgive us, if he knows that it isn't a dream..." Cadence muttered, looking out a window into the city beyond.

* * *

About a thousand miles southeast, Princess Luna was having breakfast with her sister in considerate silence.

That is, until the new Captain of the Royal Guard (a bat pony) walked in with a scroll and a new pink coat.

"I really don't like Philomena, Your Hignesses." She said, placing the scroll on the table. "Where did she get the paint, anyway?" Both of them were holding in giggles, until Dark Wing said that, then both Princesss burst out laughing, causing the bat pony to roll her eyes.

"Who is -gasp- that from?" Luna tried calming down, taking long, deep breaths. It took her a moment, but she got her laughter under control. A nearly silent giggle still came out from time to time. Celestia on the other hand, had a little harder time keeping her laughter in. The other two simply ignored her.

"The Crystal Empire." Wing answered, nodding a little. "I didn't check it beforehand, because of the 'urgent' ribbon on it." Said ribbon was a dark blue ribbon with Luna's cutie mark stamped across it. The urgent ribbon for Celestia was gold with her cutie mark stamped across it.

"Thank you, Captain Wing." Luna nodded and picked up the scroll in her magic, unravelling it.

_"Dear Aunt Luna,_

_Normally we wouldn't disturb you unless we needed to (I can't thank you enough for the food shipments), but there was an... occurance reccently. Our throne room had explosion,"_ Luna almost teleported at that, but Night made her continue reading first, _"though only one was injured. Sadly, we do not know what this being (because he is not a pony) is, other than a 'human', as he referred himself."_ Celestia, who was reading over Luna's shoulder (non-discreetly) gasped at that.

_"This human was greviously injured in what we guess was a teleportation gone extremely bad, and is now missing two legs, both mostly gone. Though I know this is a lot to ask of you, Shining Armor and I ask that you peer into his dreams and see what his intents are._

_I wish we could simply ask him, but not only would it probably cause him extreme discomfort, he has also lost a lot of blood from the looks of the area where he appeared and would likely hurt himself if he began to struggle, believing that we were going to hurt him. A quick tip for you Auntie Luna; he speaks in Old Gryphic, or what he calls 'French'. And he said his country was 'United States Marine Corps'._

_Your niece and fellow ruler,_  
_ Princess Mi Amore Cadenza."_

"How could a human be here?" Celestia muttered, looking to the side. "One hasn't come from the mirror and they can't do magic, so teleportation is out..."

"When I start moving through dreams, I will look into his." Luna said, looking at her breakfast. "As soon as I finish eating, though. Captain Night Wing, why don't you join us?"

"Er..." The bat pony shifted in her armor, before sighing. "Alright. But only because my shift ended a few minutes ago." She took a seat across from Luna, and plucked a few pieces of fruit out of the bowl in the middle of the table.

* * *

Unlike what some people may think, bodies that have multiple personalities don't dream in the normal sense. Yeah, we may fall asleep and 'dream', but we always have lucid dreams. Allowing us to shape new worlds however we wish.

Though it was less entertaining to see what crazy things we can come up with because Ruby was still in a coma. Her 'body' (in the metaphysical sense) was floating an inch off of the ground, a cylinder of blank space surrounding her.

"So that's what it looks like when we're unconscious..." I mused, before causing a map of Earth to float in front of me. Within moments, I had about ten different scenarios to how the war would turn out in twenty years. Three of which were nuclear endings, three with the Taliban winning, and four with different NATO nation reminants winning. Pretty high hopes, if you ask me.

"What kind of dream is this?" A feminine voice caused my head to snap up. Odd, I didn't create a woman. Or a horse almost identical to Cadence, except dark blue and a little taller.

"Who're you?" I questioned, wiping the map blank. Somehow she could understand English, because she didn't appear confused.

"The Princess of the Night, Princess Luna." She answered, stepping up next to me as she watched me create an entire world out of nothing.

"Master Sergeant Vicktor Armswell." I answered, not wanting her to know about Ruby at the moment, since she couldn't fight back. The mere fact that this 'Luna' was able to enter our lucid dream sent out a lot of red flags. No, seriously, she had miniature red flags popping out of the top of her head.

"What country do you hail from? The 'United States Marine Corps', correct?" Not only did she not say Corps right, she assumed that it was my home country. "Why art thou laughing?" She slipped into old English as I tried to stop my giggling.

"The Untied States Marine Corps is a branch of my country's military." I got out, before lightly punching my chest. "Oh, I needed that." I grinned. "Haven't laughed like that in two years."

"Well then, what country are you from?" She asked, tilting her head.

"What remains of the Untied States of America." I answered, cracking my neck a bit. "About half of the southern half was taken over by a nation known as Mexico, who joined a huge terrorist group known as the Taliban." She frowned, watching the continents shape themselves.

"So this United States Marine Corps was your military force?" Luna asked, looking up at me.

"Not the main one, but yes." I smiled. "We fight alongside the Army, with support by the Navy and Air Force." I turned and whipped up a pair of recliners. "So tell me, why are you here?"

I felt her try to leave, but I grinned as her eyes widened. "I know not how you got in, but you cannot leave unless I allow it. This isn't a hostage situation, I just want to know why you're intruding upon my mind."

"How art thou able to do this?" She questioned, her voice going quiet.

"The power of the human mind, Princess." I smirked. "I don't know how far your species has gotten in neurological and pyschological sciences, but we know how much of our brain we use."

"Doesn't thou use all of one's brain?" She blinked in confusion. I chuckled, shaking my head.

"No idea how it is with you ponies, or whatever you're called, but humans only use 10%." I explained, shrugging. "Wanted to join the Navy and become a corpsman, but they had more than enough at the time, so I went to the Marines." Good enough excuse, and almost completely true.

"What is a 'corpsman'?" She asked, hesitantly taking a seat.

"Medical personnel who rush through a battlefield, collecting casualties." I answered. "They only become casualties when they get unlucky or some idiot decides it's a good idea to take potshots at them. Even the Taliban respect this, since their wounded get collected as well. Anybody who shoots a corpsman get executed on the spot, though it used to be where they were arrested and tried for commiting a war crime. Now, we don't have time for arresting."

"I see." Her horn glowed for a moment, before her eyebrows rose. "I can't use my magic for some reason."

"Does your people have computers?" I questioned. She smiled a bit at that.

"Yes, my sister's student has one of the best ones we've made. She said it was able to process about 256 of a unit called 'kilobytes'." I almost lost it right there, but kept the snort and laughter in.

"Well..." I rubbed my forehead. "How big is this computer?"

"It takes up an entire room." I couldn't help it, I burst out laughing. "Why is this funny?! It's the most advanced public computer out there!"

"Humans haven't used computers that could only process kilobytes for over sixty years." I giggled, before conjuring up an older cell phone. "That there is a celluar phone, something created to contact other people throughout our world. This thing is old compared to our cell phones of the current time, but that can store over a _gigabyte_ without any external storage. It runs with over _four_ gigabytes."

"How much would a gigabyte be?" She blinked.

"A thousand kilobytes make up a megabyte, alright? A thousand megabytes make up a gigabyte." I explained. Her eyes widened, before she held out a hoof. I tossed it over to her, and she caught it in her hooves.

I didn't question this for two reasons; one, it's still a dream, and two, I saw those chefs earlier cutting up vegetables without telekenithes.

"Anyway, the reason I brought up computers is because my dreams are like one." I rubbed my hands together. "You get in and aren't an administrator, you ain't changin' a thing. And my computer has auto-lock software, so I can keep in what I want until I get bored." I think she only half heard me, because she let out a hum and kept examining the obsolete Blackberry.

That got old very quickly. Instead of shouting or being more firm like other people, I deleted it from her hands and frowned at her when she looked up in shock.

"I could do the same to you and put up a security system called a firewall to keep you out." I stared at her as she sheepishly smiled. "But I didn't. All I want to know is why you're here."

"Fine." She sighed. "But only if I can converse with you in the flesh."

"I see no reason to deny you that. Especially since I'm in the military and I can see the tactical advantage of conversing with a ruler." I smiled and reclined back, propping my feet up. "Well?"

"Princess Cadence and Shining Armor requested me to find out if you are a threat to their kingdom, but I understand if you do not wish to answer that." I waited for her to finish before opening my mouth, not wishing to cut her off.

I hate it when people do that.

"If they're not at war with the United States, then I have no qualms with them." I swivelled around because screw natural recliners, my dream recliner is better. "In fact, I owe them because of the medical procedure they tried to do before I woke up, and the fact that they didn't just let me bleed out on the ground gave them major brownie points."

"What are these 'brownie points' you speak of?" She questioned, causing me to chuckle.

"It means that I respect them more than I respect the common person." I answered. "Cadence could have just asked me herself, though I do understand why she did it. My government wouldn't even wait for her to say 'I come in peace' in ghetto English, they'd lock her up and experiment on her." Luna frowned at this, but didn't comment.

"Very well, I shall tell my niece that you mean no harm." She got up, but I held up a finger.

"I don't mean any harm, but I will fight back with sufficient force if someone tries to inclict harm upon me. This law is always upheld in the US, and I follow my country's rules at all times. Here is no exception, and I want you to know that I'm not going to follow any rules here that aren't used in my home country." I said, completely serious. "This means that I will not kill unless I am assaulted and have no other choice, I will not rape, steal, injure without reason, and I will not have liquor just yet." I was twenty, after all.

"This is fine, I suppose." Luna bowed her head a bit. "May I leave now?"

"Yeah." I drew up a tablet and pushed a few buttons. "I'll also give you some administrator priveledges, so you can come and go as you please and do basic 'dream' stuff. Though I don't recommend you doing this while I'm awake." She raised an eyebrow, but nodded again and faded out.

As soon as she left, a bed appeared behind me and I collapsed, groaning in relief.

"I'm surprised that I could keep her in for that long..." I muttered, staring up at a night sky that I willed into being. "God, I'm exhausted. Time for an eight hour coma..." I shut my eyes, and I believe that everything that was created faded away.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Day Two

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**jojo90nation: I aim to please.**

**[Ruby]**

When I woke up, I had _no fucking_ idea where the hell I was.

_ 'Markus, where the fuck are we?'_ I questioned my headmate.

_ 'Urgh...'_ He mumbled, before figuratively yawning. _'Ruby, you're awake!'_

_ 'Of course I am, why wouldn't I be?'_ I shot, slowly sitting up. Wherever we were, it was dark and I felt silk sheets against our torso.

_ 'You were in a coma for a while.'_ He answered, causing me to frown.

_ 'Ah.'_ I rubbed my face with my right hand and yawned, stretching out my arms. Though I didn't feel my left one, for some reason. _'Were we drugged or something? I can't feel half of our body.'_

_ 'Ruby... I don't know how to say this without making you panic...'_ That got me to freeze. _'Our left arm and leg were blown off by that shell.'_ I didn't panic, I fucking _panicked_. I was halfway out of the bed before my leg froze, but I was still able to thrash out with my arm. I knocked something to the floor and broke a glass of what was probably water.

_ 'FUCKING STOP IT.'_ Hearing Markus actually _swear_ caused me to pause. _'You are a MARINE, Ruby. Marines do NOT act like this!'_

"Well I can't fucking help it, didn't you do this as well?!" I demanded. When _I_ got agitated and in control of our body, I started using my vocal cords to talk to him.

_ 'No, I didn't. And you want to know why?'_ He replied. _'Because we both know that flailing around like an idiot is __**not**__ going to help us. We are on a new PLANET, and we are the sole representatives of the Untied States! So unless an American diplomat somehow appears there, we are NOT going to embarrase ourselves!'_

_ '...You're right.'_ I sighed, rubbing my face. _'So, what's the sitrep?'_

_ 'Before falling asleep, I was able to establish contact with one of the rulers. Sadly for you, only I can talk with her.'_ I frowned.

_ 'French?'_

_ 'Old French. She said it was Old Gryphic, so that means that we're dealing with at least one myth being intelligent here.'_

_ 'Next thing you're gonna tell me is that pegasi and unicorns exist.'_

_ '...'_

_ 'Goddamnit. Anything else?'_ That unnerved me a bit.

_ 'One of the other rulers can enter our lucid dreams.' That_ somehow surprised me even more.

_ 'How so?'_

_ 'They're able to use some sort of biological powers to use telekeinethis and other mental things, though it's surprising. She thought that they used the entire brain for everything, and their _best_ public computers could only process 256 Kilobytes.'_ That got me to raise an eyebrow and slowly sit up. _'Oh, and they're ponies.'_

"You gotta be fucking kidding..." I muttered, noting that he stopped controlling our leg.

_ 'Nope.'_ He replied, before giving off a mental yawn. _'I need some more rest. Try and act like you know them, alright? If it comes down to it, mimic that you have MPD and aren't the one which knows French.'_

"Goddammit..." I sighed, rubbing my face. "How the hell will I do that?"

_ 'Think of something. I'm taking a nap.'_ WIth that, his mental thing cut off.

"Wonderful..." I muttered, looking for a light switch. All of a sudden, the light came on, blinding me. While I was momentarily blinded, I heard a feminine gasp and something pull me back onto the bed.

When my sight returned, there was this pink horse standing there, looking at me in concern.

"_Are_ you alright?" She asked. Christ, I knew I should've paid more fucking attention in French. I'm gonna butcher the shit out of this, I just know it.

"Yes." I answered, trying to use simple words. Hopefully she'll do the same.

"I woke up to a _noise crashing_ in here." She said, looking around before noticing the broken glass. "What _happened_?"

Christ.

"Er..." I rubbed my neck. "Had a fit. I'm fine now, thank you." She looked at me.

"You _eat youself on a daily basis, _right?" She asked. Goddamnit speak slower.

"Yes." I answered.

"I know you're not able to fully _understand_ French." Shit.

"I speak Italian better." I coughed a bit. "What language is this?" I threw a Hail Mary.

"I don't _understand_." Well, fuck. I sighed, rubbing my face.

"I have two people in head." I said, poking my forehead. "One talking now. Other tired." Her eyes widened, and I hope to God she wasn't gonna kill me or something. Maybe MPD was a supertition in this country worthy of death/life in exile.

"I'll be back in a _moment_." She hurriedly left, causing me to groan in frusteration.

Five minutes later, I was being escorted into a prison cell while strapped to a wheelchair. I would laugh if it wasn't me in the situation.

"I could shoot the both of you right now and you wouldn't be able to react." I muttered, looking at the semi-disassembled pistol on the ground in front of me. Once I was locked into the cell, they allowed me to leave my chair, so I was able to sit up against the wall. "Blow yer fuckin' brains ou', I could." Snorting, I finished field-stripping my firearm and put it back together, relatively slower than usual, due to not having two hands.

_ 'Markus, you should've known I would fuck this up.'_ I thought at my sleeping body-mate, lightly tapping my head against the wall of our cell. I knew he couldn't respond, so I resorted to staring at the opposite side of the cell.

"Wish you guys had a bloody book for me to stare at..." I muttered, sighing and closing my eyes. I fell asleep, somehow tired despite having slept already.

I didn't notice my cell open and a pair of horses come in, each tapping a horn against my head.

"Nope, not like that..." I muttered, throwing away the template to the current universe I was creating.

"You do know it would've been easier to just let it happen like it was supposed to, right?" Markus asked from his side of the room.

"Yeah yeah." I waved him off, before creating a single star in the void. A moment later and a world began at the perfect distance from it. "I am now Armok, fear my wrath all ye little dwarven drunks." Markus snickered.

"Dwarf Fortress again?" He rose an eyebrow. I nodded and watched as 'The Pillar of Universes' came into being all on its own.

Out of nowhere, a klaxxon started going off, causing both of us to create M5 rifles and aim them at the door to the room.

"This is the second time our lucid dreaming has been breached." Markus commented. "Though the first time wasn't forceful, like this is."

"I got an idea." I grinned. Suddenly we were on a beach, the two of us at the top of a cliff in a bunker. The door was amidst choppy surf, barbed wire, and tank traps. To get to us, the intruder had to go through two hundred yards of surf, wire, sand, and the occasional mine. All while being fired upon by Markus and I, manning MG42s that had unlimited ammunition and wouldn't overheat.

"Fuck..." I muttered, feeling like I was just punched in the stomach. "Oh, we were arrested and thrown into the brig." Markus facepalmed.

"I should've figured you'd get us thrown in jail." He said, right before the door opened. The siren cut off as a white version of the pink one hesitantly strode in, followed by a blue one. "Don't kill the blue one, she's a friend." As he said that, she was thrown into corpsman gear, causing her to recoil. The other was wearing 'dough boy' clothing, so she (I figured) was fair game.

And was quickly blown up by a mine.

"Five fifteen." I stated, scratching down another tally on the wall. "They need to learn that there's more than one mine, and that the sand resets after every ten explosions. Come on, a forth grader could've figured that out by now."

"We just want to talk!" A faint voice came from below. Blinking, I looked down to discover that, while watching the white one fruitlessly move through the field of death, the blue one managed to get through and was at the cliff base.

"Should we bring her up?" I questioned, glancing at Markus.

"Yeah." He answered. "As I stated before, she's a friend." With that, he snapped his fingers and she disappeared with a small flash of light. She reappeared next to Markus, stumbling a bit.

"I admit, I wasn't expecting that..." She muttered, regaining her footing. "So, who is this?" She asked Markus, nodding at me.

"Her name is Ruby, and I'm Markus." He answered, while I took my time in blowing a hole into the white one. Goddamn I love the Kar98k. Almost as much as a Mosin Naugant.

"I thought you were named Vicktor Armswell?" She tilted her head in confusion. At that point, I stopped paying any and all attention to the pair of them and focused on making the white one wish she never came in here.

**[Markus]**

"Yes, but only technically." I held up a finger. "The reason that the body we inhabit is called 'Vicktor Armswell' and the two of us are Ruby and Markus is because we suffer from a unique mental illness."

"What is this illness called?" Luna questioned. I ran a hand through my hair before answering.

"It's called multiple personality disorder, or MPD for short." I said, before sighing. "And you are officially the second one to know, considering that Ruby told Cadence earlier." She grinned sheepishly at that.

"She interpreted 'two people in head' as 'Vicktor' having been sheltering something called the Nightmare in his mind." She answered, rubbing the back of her head. "I would be able to relate to your position, if only slightly."

"First, just call our body by whoever you're speaking to." I held up a finger. "Second, I would start denying that you know anything about having more than one mind in your head, but I can tell that you're not lying." I put up a second finger, before wiggling them. "Would you care to talk about it?"

"I would... But I'm more concerned about my sister." She looked out of the bunker and down to the white horse. "Will she be alright?"

"As soon as she wakes up." I shrugged. "Unless she can't handle the stress of dying over and over, either way her body will be completely intact. Her mental state would be questionable, however." She blinked at that, before shaking her head.

"'Tia's mental shields are extremely strong, so I doubt that she would be affected by this other than balking at the casualness of her deaths in here." Luna looked at me. "Though I do wish that you'd make it easier on her." I let out a small snort.

"In my mind she has absolutely no power." I grinned. "If I wanted to, I could smite her with the sun over and over." Luna laughed at that.

"That would be very degrading in her eyes." She said. "Celestia has control of the sun on our planet, while I control the moon." If I were eating something, I would have choked on it. I decided to not call her out on her obvious bull, because she was the ruler of a nation and could likely have me _BLAM'd_ for 'HERESY!' in a heartbeat. "Who controls the sun and moon on your planet?"

Crud.

"(Insert Greek gods here)" I answered, glad that I could remember the Greek gods on such short instance. She hummed in response, before looking back down upon the beach.

"Where is this location at?" Luna questioned, rearing up and placing her hooves onto the opening of the bunker.

"Not only where, but _when_." I corrected her. "You're looking at the beaches of Normandy, France on D-Day, 1945. The only thing missing is the Axis and Allied forces on this strip of hell."

"How many died in the battle?" She quietly questioned.

"It wasn't a battle, it was a war." I rubbed my hands together. "World War II, where the combined casualties were easily over ten million people." She paled at that, and I watched 'Tia' die again before sighing a bit and waving my hand ever so slightly. When she respawned, the ground beneath her started fading away, causing her to gallop as if her life depended on it.

When the dissolving ground reached her, she didn't fall or get deleted or anything. No, she simply slowed down in confusion as the ground was eaten away. The 'cleansing' continued until it reached our bunker, where it took a few extra seconds to erase it.

"What's happening?" Luna asked in confusion.

"Wiping the landscape clean." I answered. "Don't worry, it's just to ease the mental strain on the both of us." Neither of us showed it, but we were becoming exhausted from holding the landscape as it was. After everything was all gone, Tia stormed up to the pair of us, glaring at Ruby for some reason.

"I am tired of playing these games, Nightmare." She seethed, confusing both of us. "Now leave this human's head and STAY OUT." Ruby merely cocked an eyebrow at her.

"You come into OUR mind, forcibly might I add." She began, storming over to the white one. "And you think it's not enough that we don't simply kick you out. No, you _come in here and start demanding that I LEAVE MY OWN BODY!_" At that point she started yelling in Italian. _"I HAVE HAD FUCKING ENOUGH OF YOU!" _With a needless snarl, she waved her hand. At first, nothing happened, but then Tia started burning up like a Promethean from Halo 4 after being killed.

"What's happening?!" She reared up, scared out of her mind.

"Goodbye, Tia." I stated, rather calmly. "The firewall has been set up, and you've been blocked from entering." She looked at me in horror before her head evaporated.

"Was that really necessary?" Luna rose an eyebrow. Ruby's glare made her cringe, but she held her ground.

"She fucking deserved it, trying to _kill_ me." Ruby spat, before we suddenly woke up.

_'Take control, I don't want to deal with her.'_ Ruby said, and I was suddenly in control of the body.

"Are you okay?" Luna asked, keeping her distance from me while Tia groaned, slowly getting to her hooves.

"I've been better." I groaned, rubbing my head. "Mentally exhausted, but Ruby doesn't want to speak to her." I nodded at the white one, who was almost on her hooves at this point.

_"Are you alright, sister?"_ And she went and spoke her native language, leaving me out of the loop.

_"I-I'm fine."_ Tia groaned, before looking at me. _"I'm more worried about him, though."_

_"He told me that he suffers from something called Multiple Personality Disorder."_

_"And how are you sure that isn't an excuse for the Nightmare to be in his mind?!"_ She sounded a bit peeved. I discreetly made sure that nobody had tampered with our M18 while in the realm of unconsciousness. The magazine was fully loaded and it slid in and out without a hitch, but I would have to see if it would cock later, as I had two, no, three sets of eyes looking at me, as Cadence had entered our homely cell.

_"Well?"_ Cadence questioned the other two.

_"We... were mistaken."_ Luna stated, causing Tia to glare at her.

_"What do you mean?"_

_ "He does not suffer from the Nightmare's influence, from what we're able to tell."_ Luna said, causing Tia to snort. _"Oh don't look at me like that, you know that I'm right! If he truly had the Nightmare ensnaring his mind, neither of us would be here talking about it!"_

_ "Then why did he say that there's more than one mind in him?"_ Cadence looked confused, and it didn't take a rocket scientist to know that they were talking about me.

_ "Because there is."_ Luna looked at me. "Could you tell Cadence your names?"

"I am Markus," I stated, nodding, "and my head-mate's name is Ruby. As I've said before, we're Master Sergeants of the Untied States Marine Corps."

"I... see." Cadence finally said, nodding. Tia glared at me for a moment, before her horn lit up in a golden aura and she disappeared with a pop.

_What's up her butt?_ I thought to myself, before mentally shrugging and started slowly standing up. "Am I clear to be relieved of this cell?" I asked.

"That is up to Cadence, I'm afraid." Luna told me, before looking to the pink one. Cadence thought for a moment, before coming up to me and helping me to my foot with a wing.

"If you can manage it, I'll go get you a cane." She said, smiling a bit. "Unless you wish to be pushed around." I snorted at that.

"I'll take the cane, your majesty." I replied. "I'm a MWD handler; we don't get pushed around unless the pusher has a shiny rank on their shoulders." Cadence and Luna laughed at that, and I quickly joined in.

Things were beginning to look up, despite the rocky start this morning.


End file.
